Background
Iakovlev, Egor was born in 1930.
Iakovlev, Egor was born in 1930.
Revolutionary editor-in-chief of the Moscow News (Moskovskie Novosti), 1987. Enthusiastic adherent of Gorbachev’s glasnost policy. Has printed debates about Stalin’s legacy, a letter from 10 famous defectors and emigres pouring scorn on Gorbachev’s reform plans, and uncensored articles by such strong foreign critics as Zbignew Brzezinski, the former American national security adviser.
First to publish articles in defence of religion. Doubled the Russian edition of his paper to 250,000 copies, with 750,000 copies going abroad in English, French, German, Spanish and Arabic. Described himself as working to three principles: firstly there should be no forbidden themes, censorship should only be concerned with keeping military or state secrets.
Secondly, the paper, with its large foreign circulation, should reflect the opinions of other societies and the views of other leading politicians. And thirdly, the paper should give real information to its Russian readers, with no more nonsense, but rather some real critical material, which is both constructive and important. Regarded as the voice of glasnost and perestroika in the Soviet Union.